Classic Movie Daily for Tuesday, July 7, 2015

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Born on this date: Richard Carle in 1871; Ben F. Wilson in 1876; Raymond Hatton in 1887; Tom Powers in 1890; Virginia Rappe in 1891; George Cukor in 1899; Ruth Ford in 1911; Joan Perry in 1911; Jackie Searl in 1921; and Patricia Hitchcock in 1928.

All links lead to each actor’s IMDb page, set to open in a new tab.

Classic Movie Daily subscribers will find images of Ben F. Wilson and Raymond Hatton inside today’s issue, one of Joan Perry at the bottom of this post, with a couple of TV related images and a “Lightning Review” also tucked inside today’s Daily.

TCM TV Alerts through tomorrow at 7 am:
These titles play on TCM’s US schedule and all quoted times are for my own local Eastern time zone.

About twenty minutes after I published yesterday’s Daily, when I was scanning through the next 24 hours or so of programming to set my DVR recordings, today’s theme sprung out at me: the 100th Anniversary of Technicolor. Of course, had I bothered looking at TCM’s home page I would have immediately spotted this article. Those silent films that opened today, the ones starring Anna May Wong and Donald Crisp, begin a two-day, 48 hour, 25 movie marathon celebrating Technicolor’s anniversary. Today’s highlights:

—8:30 am – 11:30 am, Doctor X (1932) and The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), hard not to group together these two horror films, both from Warner Bros., directed by Michael Curtiz, featuring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, and, oh yeah, in Technicolor. I like Doctor X for Lee Tracy, and if you want to see the first sparks of Torchy Blane be sure to keep an eye on Glenda Farrell in Wax Museum. Both good, not great, horror entries, enhanced by the gimmickry of the color. Atwill’s revelation in Wax Museum still a classic horror moment.

—11:30 am Nothing Sacred (1937), classic with Carole Lombard and Fredric March, directed by William A. Wellman. One of my favorites with Lombard.

—1:00 pm A Star Is Born (1937), the original with March and Janet Gaynor, another from Wellman.

—4:30 pm The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), probably the most beautiful of all Technicolor movies. Another from director Curtiz with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, of course.

—The Technicolor marathon continues throughout the evening with features including Dietrich in The Garden of Allah (1936 – 8:00 pm), The Thief of Bagdad (1940 – 9:30 pm), Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948 – 11:30 pm), and then my favorite of this particular bunch, David Lean’s This Happy Breed (1944 – 2:00 am).

There’s nothing pre-1943 on tomorrow’s schedule—in fact, there’s nothing pre-1943 on TCM again until Saturday morning, so I’m not quite sure how we’re going to handle this schedule section the next few days.

—On GetTV, Tuesday at 1:00 pm, Warner Baxter in Crime Doctor. My full review is HERE.

Cliff’s Notes

—I’m currently working in reverse, so no writing update this morning. I slept during the early part of Monday evening and got up to work, on this, at 2 am. I’ll probably polish today’s Daily off by 7 am and take a quick break from there before buckling down to work on the book for the rest of the morning. Oh, one bit of news on the Twelvetrees’ front: after a seven-week wait a copy of Helen’s birth certificate arrived in today’s mail. It provides the date of birth I’m going to run with, and it’s not the one found everywhere else. Amazing that it took seven weeks to ship from New York to Long Island: it only took 2-3 weeks to receive Freddie Bartholomew’s birth records from overseas!

—New “Lightning Review” this morning takes a look at Curtain Call (1940), a little RKO “B” that played last week during Helen Vinson day. Likely a commentary on my own viewing habits, but almost all of the Lightning Reviews so far have been of movies from RKO. I suspect it’s because most of them are fresher to me than the smaller Warner Bros. or MGM movies that would be ripe for the lightning treatment. In other words, it seems like every time I watch a new recording from TCM it turns out to be an RKO quickie.

—If you’re looking for some additional reading tied to the birthday list, have a look at this post about Jackie Searl by Bernardo Villela over at The Movie Rat.

—As per Laura at Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, the half-price sale on Criterion DVDs at Barnes & Noble has begun and will run through July 27.

—I meant to include this yesterday, but if you’re looking for more television picks throughout July, see Kristina’s post at the Speakeasy. Thanks again for giving special mention to the new(ish) daily format over here!

—Five titles co-starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main are among the new releases coming to Warner Archive later this month.

—My Independence Day sale expired on eBay last night, but the Summer blowout continues. I think all of my items currently on sale are discounted a ridiculously steep 35-60%. Grab ’em before they’re gone! You’ll find all of my eBay sales items through THIS LINK.

Talk to you tomorrow!
Cliff

Above: Jackie Searl in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).